Pick of the Week: Monday 15th September

AMAZON
BBC 2 Mon 15th Sept 9pm Alert Me
Bruce Parry (Tribe) returns for his most ambitious series yet as he journeys from the source of the mighty Amazon river to its mouth in Amazon. His epic journey takes him along the world’s greatest river, starting high up on the Peruvian mountain Nevado Mismi. He travels through the world’s largest forest – the most bio-diverse habitat on the planet, and home to some of the last uncontacted tribes left on Earth – and finally to the port of Belem, where the tiny trickle that started as glacial melt water finally meets the Atlantic Ocean.THE FAMILY
Channel 4, Wed 17th Sept, 9pm Alert Me
A British family opens its doors to viewers in a major new eight-part observational series, documenting universal themes of family life. For nearly four months the Hughes family was filmed around the clock: dad Simon, 44; mum Jane, about to turn 40, and their four children: Jessica, 22, who lives nearby with her fianc? Pat and 10 month-old baby Ruby; Emily, 19; Charlotte, 17; and the youngest, 14-year-old Tom. In this week’s episode, Jane’s 40th birthday is approaching and the tension is building in the Hughes household.

NO HEROICS
ITV 2, Thurs 18th Sept, 10:30PM Alert Me
This six-part series is brand new for 2008 and sees a group of British off-duty superheroes living their day to day life, which for supposed saviours of the world is actually rather normal – as they just can’t be arsed. Instead this group of b-listers would rather get drunk in their local superheroes-only pub The Fortress and commiserate at their lack of superiority.RICKY GERVAIS FAME
Channel 4, Fri 19th Sept, 10pm Alert Me
Ricky Gervais’s stand-up show tackles the weird world of fame, blurring the line between the acceptable and the outrageous, with a balancing act that had audiences across the country in stitches in what was the fastest-selling live comedy tour in UK history.ALIEN
Film Four, Sat 20th Sept, 9pm Alert Me
One of cinema’s all-time sci-fi horror classics, Ridley Scott’s film stars Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt and Ian Holm as the crew of the Nostromo, a deep-space tow-craft that intercepts a distress call from a deserted planet. On landing, they find a crashed spaceship and some strange eggs. And then John Hurt leans over one… Spellbinding, edge-of-seat horror follows as the alien begins to hunt down the crew until there’s just one survivor (and a cat) left to face its terrible appetite.